Lesson 13

What are the Americans like?

Video contents:

- Adjectives and stereotypes,
- Expressing opinions,
- Use of "self" as prefix (self-confident, etc.)
- UK idiom "over the top",
- Use of "over" as a prefix,
- "There" as adverb and pronoun

Always watch the video without subtitles first in order to train your ears! It's a good idea to watch several times until you feel the "music", before watching the version with subtitles. Your pronunciation will be much better if you follow this rule.

Teachers:

There are two versions of this video, a relatively
short version for beginners, and a longer version containing some advanced verb structures and other advanced lexical items. As is nearly always the case in regard to verb structures in the beginner lessons, the short version is limited to "is" and "are".

We made two separate edits of a few videos, especially the videos concerning the "5 nationalities" (the French, Germans, Italians, British, and Americans). The reason is simple: a very general question such as "What are (the Americans) like?" provided us with replies including structures from the very simple to the most advanced. The exercises for this video are based on the beginner version. We will make a separate set of exercises for the long version (as soon as we finish work on the the new mobile version of Real English videos and lessons).

These 5 lessons all contain stereotypes. This is inevitable. Many people refused to answer the question, saying "I don't know any Americans personally, so I can't say". While this is probably the most honest way to reply, also allowing the interviewee to avoiding stereotyping the different nationalities, it didn't really help us very much in illustrating new vocabulary.